(Afghan Hound Database and Breed Information Exchange)
 Chaman Afghan Hounds UK Page 4 (By Steve Tillotson October 2013)
As well as a pioneer Afghan hound breeder, Molly was a pioneer and enthusiastic Afghan hound racing person as we can see from the above wonderful photoghraph taken way back in 1938 at Falkirk, Midlothian, Scotland We mentioned Am Ch Rana Of Chaman earlier, herebelow is a photo of Rana's litter sister, who was part of the foundations for the very famous English Afghan hound kennel "Bletchingley"
As you can read from Phyllis Robson's narrative, Mrs Riley looked after Rana Of Chaman before he went to Marion Florsheim in the USA. Next hound I will mention is Bletchingley Berberine, sired by Ch Bletchingley Tajomeer who is of pure Chaman breeding. Pedigree first, discussion to follow -
The above shows the 1938 littermates Rana and Shiba of Chaman and then Bletchingley Berberine who's breeding was Chaman on the sire side Bletchingley on the dam side. I mentioned previously that Shahzad/Afroz seemed to be a constant in Molly's breeding but you can't see them in the above pedigree. They are in the pedigree, they are behind the 4th generation Garrymhor ancestors and, interestingly, also behind Chimosa Of Enriallic (Bell Murray also behind Chimosa). So it is no surprise that Berberine turned out to be of classic early Chaman type. Bletchingley Berberine was a foundation of Margaret Niblock's Khanabad kennel. Continuing the theme of Chaman influence, here's a picture of an early Khanabad hound, out of Berberine -
I think we have reached an important milestone in the history of British Afghan hound breeding. We are looking at an Afghan hound and its pedigree which cover the decade of the pre-war, the war, and the post-war periods. In her book, Margaret Niblock wrote - "Perhaps one of the greatest contributions towards the perpetuation of the breed was made by the world famous Chaman Afghans owned by Mrs Molly Sharpe and founded in 1935. The Chamans were undoubtedly to become the greatest influence on the breed immediatly after the war and is the only active pre-war kennel to survive to this day (1978)." I would like to add some words of my own to Margaret's wonderful and correct narrative. Molly Sharpe was a member of the 1946 committee that drew up the Afghan Hound Breed Standard, adopted by The Kennel Club in 1950. If any readers have any difficulty in understanding the essence of the breed standard, then my suggestion is to look at all the photographs on this page, because, in my opinion, they represent the essence of the Afghan hound - type, balance, a lean functioning hound, displaying breed legacy characteristics such as bareness on the pasterns etc, and a "consistency" in producing hounds with these characteristics. I would add that whilst the most influential kennel in all of the above is of course Chaman, we should note (by studying the pedigree above), that this essence of type and characteristics was maintained by several other breeders, some of whom where themselves "newbies". I think it is a credit to all the other breeders that they were obviously guided by the trueness and soundness of Chaman hounds and continued Molly's legacy pretty faithfully. Here's a summary list of some of the early breeders/kennels mentioned earlier -
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